Drinking Stories and Benders Oh My!

Well I can see that when the WARP begins we are going to be totally stealing ideas. Yes, Spence and Zoe have inspired me to share a few of my own. I ironically, had just 'racked' my homemade Meade for the second time and bottled some of it this evening for a ritual I intend on doing sometime next week. Let me say, that my cheeks are flushed red and I feel the warm buzz and tingle as I write this now. One shot glassful and I am feeling no pain. We will call my first attempt of homemade Meade, (compliments of You Tube and other INTERNET sources) 'Diana's Wickedly Homemade Brew', now the batch could use a little more honey and be a bit sweeter but it kind of tastes like a dry white/honey colored Wine. But its potent, just ask my buddy Jesi! I would be afraid to drink more then two glasses of the stuff.

Anyhow that's not my bender/drinking story.

So here where go: picture this somewhere in rural Canada in a little town called Grand Falls, New Brunswick me and a bunch of high school buddies were really partying hard in the 'potato fields' back home! We have drunk so much we were finally realized we better take inventory because we were running out of the hops and the hard grain stuff too (Beer and Whiskey really but ~ it just sounded cool to say hops and grains, and the after thought here adds on more words … I think I am getting the hang of this Blog Thingy). Unlike most places in this here, United States you can buy liquor, beer, booze and alcohol up to 2:00 am I believe, and then around 6:00 stores are permitted to sell the stuff and the in between only at a few specialized package stores. Something about 'dry county laws' not sure about that but perhaps someone can explain to me later why that is. But getting to my point most places in Canada do not sell alcohol at convenience stores, if at all. There are Government Operated Liquor stores that close shop Friday night at 9:00 PM and do not open back until Monday at 10:00 am. So you have to literally buy you whole weekend supply in one shot or go clubbing to to have an alcoholic beverage on the weekends. Yes ladies and gentlemen if you are out you look for bootleggers and/or cross the border to drink but can't bring large quantities back with you if you were only passing through for a few hours in Maine.

Back to the inventory, about 14 of us getting smashed and we only have 6 beers left and half of a bottle of Whiskey. Its now 8:40 pm. We are in the middle of nowhere and to get to the package store it would take at least 30 – 35 minutes from where we are at. Well one really brave older kid says lets do the run and dubbed me as his traveling companion. This guy a little intoxicated well hell maybe a lot gets into the car and says come on Diana we can make it. Having some liquid courage and the stupidity to try, we got into his Monte Carlo (1979 – this incident by the way took place in 1987 the year before I graduated from high school ) and began speeding through a few small towns to get to the Liquor stores before 9:00 pm. The Government Operated Liquor store will let you in at 8:59 but will lock the door behind you, at 9:00 you don't get access. Well we were doing pretty good a couple of dumb teenagers a little lit and wanting more alcohol, and to be the supplier here, were making good time, so much so that we only noticed the RCMP behind us just below the bridge and about 5 minutes away from the package store. The guy I was with was old enough to buy booze in Canada (18) says ever saw calmly, oh damn … we are getting pulled over. To say the least I was not happy and even more afraid what my folks would do if they found out. The driver just looked at me and winked and said, don't worry. I thought he was out of his mind. We were well over the speed limit by 20 miles and had already been drinking, I was sure we were going to jail! The RCMP walks over to the car and tells my companion to roll down his window. He looked so furious and I thought for sure we were done and the party was over too! He looks at the driver and says “ just where the hell do you two think you are going in such a hurry”. I was lost for words, and the guy next to me calmly says we were just trying to get to the liquor store before it closed. I thought 'Okay' he has lost his mind and we are in big time, knee deep poop, but the RCMP, I guess had a sense of humor and respected honesty; thank the Gods for that, he just laughed shook his head and said okay follow me. He gave us an escort to the package store over the bridge and made the clerk open the door for us, even though it was already 9:00 PM. The party was allowed to continue and this was something I knew I would never forget!

916 + words, I really need to learn to cut down on the details or this will be too much work!

Hope you enjoy this story as much as I did telling it!

Bia' Aletheia aka ~ Diana